Telling driver that he got ticket defeats the purpose of ticketing drivers? Sorry for my bias logic, but don't you think I may want to learn a lesson and become better "HNer"? Hellbanning is like the ultimate death penalty. No warnings, no tickets, no first or second degree, nothing, just "we don't want you here anymore".
If I would get some sort of warning of what I am doing wrong, I may be given a chance to learn. Isn't that the purpose behind coming to HN? To learn?
On HN, downvotes and flags are the warnings and tickets.
Hellbans are only intended for spam accounts and trolls, neither of which is going to change their behavior. Sometimes people that aren't spammers or trolls get hellbanned, but that's an unfortunate side-effect of imperfect algorithms and moderators, not intentional.
A professional/habitual troll will know about hellbanning, and techniques like your "open in incognito window". Making it hard to know than you're hellbanned hurts innocents who were misidentified far more than it hurts actual spammers.
Every once in a while, right click the link to one of your comments and "open link in incognito window".
Adding features that tell you you're hellbanned defeats the purpose of hellbanning people.